Most hockey fans here will probably recognize the last name, not the player. And there is a good chance they might never see him skate at Mile One Centre.
But Mason Marchment, who scored two goals in the Toronto Marlies' Game 7 Cader Cup win Thursday night, is a good example of the sort of prospect the Toronto Maple Leafs hope to place with their new ECHL affiliate, the Newfoundland Growlers, beginning this fall.
The Maple Leafs-Growlers affiliation has been known for months, but was only announced Thursday morning at a press conference at the Granite in St. John’s.
New Toronto assistant general manager Lawrence Gilman was on hand for the gathering — his responsibilities include overseeing the Maple Leafs’ involvement with the Growlers — as the two teams made official what will a three-year deal, one that will see the Maple Leafs hire the coaching and training staffs and supply the Newfoundland team with a good portion of its players.
Word is Toronto could be directly responsible for half or even more of the Growlers roster, which would make 10 to 12 bodies. Gilman, just a couple of weeks into his new job, would not be specific about the number, but did agree it would be significant.
He also said the Leafs’ commitment to its new ECHL affiliate will go beyond the number of players and money spent on salaries, that the Growlers won’t just be a source of depth for the Marlies, Toronto’s AHL farm team.
“This is going to be an active and involved relationship,” said Gilman. “Our intent is for the team is to be competitive from the outset and to put the resources behind it. We want to find players who will fit the culture of the organization and might someday play in the NHL.”
Over 600 players have skated in both the ECHL and NHL. Gilman, who was assistant GM for the Vancouver Canucks from 2008 to 2015, cites the story of a former Canucks forward who has suited up for more than 900 NHL games.
“Alexandre Burrows was a very, very important player for us, but one who started his career in the ECHL,” said Gilman.
Burrows went undrafted out of the QMJHL and ended up playing 130 games in the ECHL, but eventually caught somebody’s eye, and was signed to an AHL deal by the Manitoba Moose, Vancouver’s AHL partner at the time. Within a couple of years, he had earned an NHL contract with Vancouver.
Still, as with most cases of ECHLers who have worked their way to the NHL, Burrows wasn’t the product of planned development, but rather the case of an overlooked player becoming a surprise prospect and rising to the top.
The Maple Leafs are taking different view of the ECHL, believing it can become more than a league to scout and that their ECHL affiliate can be something other than a place to store gap-fillers for the Marlies.
Gilman says the Growlers will be part of a more structured developmental arrangement and act as a far-end entry point on a pipeline that spouts out in Toronto.
That doesn’t mean most of the organization’s top drafted prospects are going to show up here. They’ll still go to the Marlies or directly to the big club. However, Gilman says there will be players who haven’t been drafted or don’t have entry-level NHL contracts, but still are considered prospects by the Maple Leafs. They’ll be offered minor-league contracts that could have them beginning as pros in the ECHL.
Take Marchment, for instance.
The son of former NHL defenceman Bryan Marchment, the 23-year-old spent two seasons the Ontario Hockey League, but was undrafted after two seasons in the major junior ranks. But the Leafs saw something they liked, enough to offer the 6-4 forward a two-way minor-league contract and send him to the Orlando Solar Bears, which had been Toronto’s ECHL partner before Thursday.
After a solid first pro season in Orlando, Marchment moved up to the Marlies and became a regular on a team filled with veterans and high-profile prospects. Three months ago, he was rewarded a two-year NHL entry-level deal that kicks in next season.
“Here’s a player this organization signed to an ECHL deal, went to Orlando, held up his part of the bargain, earned his call-up to the American Hockey League and made the jump,” said Gilman.
As is much about pro hockey the days, the NHL’s salary cap is at play here. As teams pay out big money to bring in or keep star players, they’ll looking for cheaper options, or as Gilman puts it, “more cost-efficient” talent.
He believes at least some of these will be found in prospects starting out in the ECHL.
“There isn’t a cap on what we spend on our development program. While the vast majority players come from the AHL to the AHL, there is a pipeline/supply chain issue. The more players you develop at the ECHL level, you are hopefully creating more players for the AHL level and that creates a natural push of guys at the NHL level,”’ he said, “and there should be some who come all the way through the system.
“That’s why we’re making this investment, and it’s not just in players. We’re talking about developing coaches, trainers and management people, too.”
The Growlers’ head coach is expected to be named soon, perhaps as early as next week and the team can begin signing players around the same time. Toronto’s roster contributions won’t really be known until the end of the organization’s NHL and AHL training camp, but Gilman said the Maple Leafs will “absolutely” be assisting the Growlers through the off-season in identifying players who won’t be under contract to Toronto, but will have direct ECHL deals with the Newfoundland team.
Gilman said it will be part of what he expects what will be a successful collaboration with the Growlers and owners Dean MacDonald and Glen Stanford, who once ran the local operations of St. John’s Maple Leafs, Toronto’s AHL farm team for 14 years.
“Hockey is a business of relationships,” he said. “Glen has built a reputation as a first-rate operator of professional hockey teams and Dean MacDonald’s reputation speaks for itself. The fact these guys are behind the franchise was a major contributing factor to us coming here.
“And we have a familiarity with the market. The fans are fervent, passionate. It’s a great place to put players, in part because there is a high degree of accountability.
“You want them somewhere where hockey matters. We’ll want players who can move up and move on, but we’re happy they’ll be starting here.”
[email protected]
Twitter: @telybrendan
